Asobi Ni Iku Yo! Anime Site Opens, Promises Catgirl Fan Service

Today’s entry in the “yet another light novel series to be adapted into a TV anime” listings is Asobi ni Iku Yo! (“Let’s go play!”), an Urusei Yatsura variation. For those younglings who don’t know what Urusei Yatsura is, that means that Asobi ni Iku Yo! is a romantic comedy about an ordinary high school boy who meets up with a beautiful alien and proceeds to have wacky adventures. Instead of the Japanese/Chinese mythology theme of UY, the aliens of Asobi ni Iku Yo! have animal ears and tend to be called silly things like “Kyaatias” (a pun on “Cat Ears”), Rabbitians, and Melmacs.

I’m not exactly chomping at the bit waiting for this anime to be made, but announcements like these remind me just how clueless I am about the light novel market. I’ve never heard of this before, even though it’s been around since 2003 and has a whole bunch of peripheral merchandise already – according to the Japanese wikipedia entry I’m looking at right now, there’s a 6-volume manga, a few drama CDs, and a video game already out for the series, which has been published since 2003.

What other light novels am I missing? I’m going to have to start digging through the light novel rankings to make sure I find the next Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu before I miss out!